


For you, a bridge into sky

by amusensical



Series: Carrying On [2]
Category: Rusty Quill Gaming (Podcast)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Episode 180, M/M, Meanwhile Back on the Bear, Missing Scene, Walking on a Bear
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-08
Updated: 2021-01-08
Packaged: 2021-03-18 21:02:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28624533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amusensical/pseuds/amusensical
Summary: The gift of an awesome place
Relationships: Commander James Barnes/Howard Carter (Rusty Quill Gaming)
Series: Carrying On [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2097552
Comments: 4
Kudos: 19





	For you, a bridge into sky

Carter turns back where they came in, leads the way back up the ramps and stairs. Back at the level of the bear’s back, he heads straight into a narrow street. He strides along again, but doesn’t hurry, and there is a sense of patient purpose. After the second turn, he reaches for Barnes’ hand and they go along, seeming to cross the bear’s back all the way to the other side. 

_Carter has never taken his hand. Has never stood for holding hands for more than a minute at a time._

There are doors at street level and balconies above, upper stories leaning toward each other. Barnes remembers Firenze, years ago, wandering past bright doorways. He remembers Spain, months ago, balconies collapsed in the streets. Hopes this new information makes a difference. 

~

This time, they go slightly up, and forward, over the edge of the bear’s immense shoulder. Ramps in a switchback, connected like docks, lifting and falling with the rolling motion of the bear’s shoulder. A stairway, and they’re at the front edge of the city, following the edge to a gatehouse, a side door. A person, skin dark as Azu’s, hair bright as Carter’s, smiling. Carter reaches into his pack, trickles marbles into the person’s hand. The smile gets even wider, and the person steps aside with a little bow. 

The door opens onto a bridge into the sky. Anchored by rope, not the spikes and pegs of the palisade, built to flex over the great bear’s neck as it curves. It feels like a mountain ridge, as if suddenly, after everything, they are at altitude, in thin air. 

“We can only stay on the bridge,” Carter says. “There’s something going on up there,” nodding to the other gatehouse at the end, nestled at the base of the bear’s skull. “Thought you would like this, though.” 

“Oh. Carter. It’s unbelievable. How?” 

“I walked all the way around. When I got here, the keeper welcomed me.”

The mist pools and swirls around the planks of the bridge, and the motion is more complicated here, not the deep ocean of the bear’s footsteps but currents as the great head moves, hidden in cloud, slowly, slowly, and the booming footsteps follow.

Barnes just breathes, grips the huge hawser that serves as a railing, finds his balance. _Not sea legs. Bear legs._ There is a deep swelling chord vibrating up through his legs, and something brazen thrumming through the braided railing, and Carter’s warm hand. 

They stand for a while, in the breeze, with the mist, hand in hand.

**Author's Note:**

> These events follow [ Out of the Corner of His Eye](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28566651).


End file.
